Lip syncing for computer animated characters has long been simplified. You draw a set of lip shapes for vowels and other sounds your character makes and let the computer interpolate how to go from one shape to the next. But with physical, real world puppets, all those movements have to be done manually, frame-by-frame. Or do they?

Stop motion animator and maker/hacker [James Wilkinson] is working on a project involving a real-world furry cat character called Billy Whiskers and decided that Billy’s lips would be moved one frame at a time using servo motors under computer control while [James] moves the rest of the body manually.

He toyed around with a number of approaches for making the lip mechanism before coming up with one that worked the way he wanted. The lips are shaped using guitar wire soldered to other wires going to servos further back in the head. Altogether there are four servos for the lips and one more for the jaw. There isn’t much sideways movement but it does enough and lets the brain fill in the rest.

On the software side, he borrows heavily from the tools used for lip syncing computer-drawn characters. He created virtual versions of the five servo motors in Adobe Animate and manipulates them to define the different lip shapes. Animate then does the interpolation between the different shapes, producing the servo positions needed for each frame. He uses an AS3 script to send those positions off to an Arduino. An Arduino sketch then uses the Firmata library to receive the positions and move the servos. The result is entirely convincing as you can see in the trailer below. We’ve also included a video which summarizes the iterations he went through to get to the finished Billy Whiskers or just check out his detailed website.

[Jame’s] work shows that there many ways to do stop motion animation, perhaps a part of what makes it so much fun. One of those ways is to 3D print a separate object for each character shape. Another is to make paper cutouts and move them around, which is what [Terry Gilliam] did for the Monty Python movies. And then there’s what many of us did when we first got our hands on a camera, move random objects around on our parent’s kitchen table and shoot them one frame at a time.

Smartwatches can keep us informed of incoming information at a glance, but responding still takes the use of another hand, potentially occupied by other tasks. Researchers at Dartmouth College are trying to change that with their new WrisText system.

The device divides the outside of a Ticwatch 2 into six sections of letters, selected by the movement of one’s wrist. As letters are chosen, possible words are displayed on the screen, which are then selected automatically, or by rubbing and tapping gestures between one’s finger and thumb. 

The prototype employs an Arduino DUE to pass information to a computer, along with proximity and piezo sensors to detect hand and finger movements. 

We present WrisText – a one-handed text entry technique for smartwatches using the joystick-like motion of the wrist. A user enters text by whirling the wrist of the watch hand, towards six directions which each represent a key in a circular keyboard, and where the letters are distributed in an alphabetical order. The design of WrisText was an iterative process, where we first conducted a study to investigate optimal key size, and found that keys needed to be 55o or wider to achieve over 90% striking accuracy. We then computed an optimal keyboard layout, considering a joint optimization problem of striking accuracy, striking comfort, word disambiguation. We evaluated the performance of WrisText through a five-day study with 10 participants in two text entry scenarios: hand-up and hand- down. On average, participants achieved a text entry speed of 9.9 WPM across all sessions, and were able to type as fast as 15.2 WPM by the end of the last day.

More information can be found in the project’s research paper, or you can see it demonstrated in the video below.

Dolphins are not only amazing swimmers and extremely intelligent, but can also observe their surroundings using echolocation. While extremely useful in murky water, Andrew Thaler decided to make a device that would enable him to him observe his (normally dry) surroundings with a similar distance-indicating audio setup.

While he first considered using an ultrasonic sensor, he eventually settled on LiDAR for its increased range, and uses an Arduino to translate distance into a series of audio clicks. Sound is transferred to Thaler through bone conduction speakers, mimicking the way dolphins hear without external ears. 

He notes that while using the “DolphinView” headset is initially disorienting, he was eventually able correlate his surroundings with the system’s audio feedback. Arduino code and parts list is available on GitHub, and the mechanical frame design can be found on Thingiverse if you’d like to build your own!

Even if you don’t have access to fancy tools like a 3D printer or CNC router, that doesn’t mean you can’t make something interesting. James, using only a “hot glue gun, some scissors, and a screwdriver,” was able to construct a rudimentary drawing robot that marks paper with a sharpie.

2 CD drives were creatively modified to form X, Y, and Z axes, letting him lower his writing instrument and draw. An Arduino Uno along with an Adafruit Motor Shield forms the controls for the device, and the structure is built out of LEGO bricks. 

As of now it’s described as more of an “Etch A Sketch type thing,” but it looks like a great starting point for more advanced drawbots in the future! Code for the build is available on GitHub.

As spotted on Reddit, maker “tkuhn” of Electron Dust decided to make a machine “with the sole goal of keeping a ping pong ball bouncing for as long as possible.” 

To accomplish this, he turned to audio feedback using the time difference between when four electret microphones sense the sound of the bouncing ball. Audio processing is accomplished with the help of a simple flip-flop circuit, while an Arduino Nano is used to reset it after each cycle.

Data is then passed along to an Arduino Uno, which employs four steppers motors/drivers and a linkage system to keep the ball in play. This impressive setup can be seen in the video below, and code is available on GitHub.

Making a custom arcade cabinet has become something of a rite of passage for aspiring hackers. As seen here, maker Rodrigo decided to add an extra bit of “flair” to his build (Portuguese), with buttons that light up under Arduino power. 

As demonstrated in the video below, the button lights slowly fade out after being pressed, and he’s created a pair of these light-up control boxes, one featuring blue buttons and the other red.

Notably, he’s using a separate controller to pass signals to his setup, leaving each Arduino free to control the lighting. Code for the project can be found on GitHub if you’d like to try something similar yourself.

There are many ways to modify analog and digital electrical signals, but things get a bit more complicated—or at least specialized—when working with coaxial signal transmission. To this end, Kerry D. Wong found an unused attenuator evaluation board in his “miscellaneous PCB bin,” and decided to give it a new life using an Arduino.

The attenuator functions through a set of switches to set power dissipation from 0 to 31.5 dB, but it can use a serial interface for this function as well. In his new setup, the Arduino provides the needed control signal, via a user interface consisting of an encoder and LCD display.

The fact that it’s now programmable would also open up automated testing possibilities. More on this project is seen in the video below, with the Arduino configuration showing up at around 10:00.

bring a creeper to life with your own bot

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Programmable LEDs are amazing pieces of hardware, allowing hackers to add a rainbow of colors to projects at reasonable prices. Troubleshooting these devices, however, can be a pain, so Devon Bray developed the “BlinkBox” to help with this task.

The resulting Arduino-based tester can work with multiple types of LEDs, and is able to cycle through each individual LED module in a string, and change the animation pattern as needed. He had previously done this kind of testing on a breadboard, but his new iteration is much more permanent and professional looking. 

You can find CAD and code for it on GitHub if you’d like to build your own!

If you love electronics as well as plants, what better way to combine the two than with a smart hydroponic system? Students at the Juan de Lanuza School decided to do just that, creating a portable hydroponic assembly that’s automatically controlled with the help of an Arduino Mega.

The system uses six lengths of PVC pipe to house plants and pass a nutrient rich liquid solution through their roots. The control assembly measures elements such as temperature, humidity, and pH, then adjusts the lighting, water pump, and nutrient feeder to accommodate for conditions. 

The device transmits data to ThinkSpeak for human monitoring, and also features a smartphone app for visualization. Build details are available here in English, or you can see a video of the setup in Spanish below.